“The euro might break up at this point, though European politicians are normally able to respond to a crisis,” said CEBR Chief Executive Douglas McWilliams in a list of 10 forecasts for 2011.

“We give it only a one in five chance of surviving in its present form for 10 years. If the euro doesn’t break up, this could be the year when it weakens substantially toward parity with the dollar,” he added.

In possibly related news, Estonia celebrated 2011 by ditching its kroon and embracing the euro, which seems like a questionable move to me but I can't possibly understand what Estonia is thinking.

“We are at sea in a small boat tied to an ocean liner,” Finance Minister Jurgen Ligi said by e-mail. “In a storm or otherwise, we’d feel better being on board.”

It's always sketchy when you get referred to as an "Ireland follower".

Anyway, some loyal subjects in Estonia didn't like this idea and that's for a good reason, it'd be like the United Soviet States of America buying the idea of a single currency between us, Canada and Mexico. Or Canada feeling the same.

Some Estonians say the country should continue focusing on its own economic development instead of relying on the debt- ridden euro area.

The currency switch may lead to “massive” price increases and its “one-size-fits-all” monetary policy, which “mimics Soviet imperial illusions” are wrong for the country, Anti Poolamets, a lawyer who organized an anti-euro movement, wrote Nov. 21 on the website Delfi owned by AS Ekspress Grupp, the only publicly traded media company in the Baltic region.

A poll commissioned by Poolamets in October showed that 52.8 percent of the 1,524 respondents in the survey opposed euro adoption. While the government asked people if they wanted to adopt the euro, the competing poll also highlighted the loss of the kroon, Poolamets said.

Yes "Anti Poolamets" is a real dude, therefore I say we rename the euro to "Poolamets" from here on out. Maybe a rebranding is exactly what the euro needs since nothing else appears to have worked up to this point.

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“The new regulatory tools allow authorities to impose losses on debt holders without necessarily placing the entire bank into liquidation,” the ratings firm said yesterday in a statement. “Moody’s considers subordinated debt to be most at risk under the new law.”

new rules, new laws, new turf on the Lambeau Field gridiron... make your plan, fly your plan and when the environment changes, change your plan.

YIKES!!! Germans LOVE it when OTHER people lose money through foolishness but they HATE it when they themselves lose money - they act like spoiled children who lose a game of football where they own the ball and if they lose, they say "Fuck you guys, I'm taking my ball and going home". I hate to admit it (because I'm a German/Swiss descendant) but it's true - we're the WORST sore losers in the world.

*Here's the real dynamic in Greece: The Kleptocracy--broadly, the political and financial Elites of the nation--saw a stupendous opportunity to embezzle hundreds of billions of euros from greed-blinded European banks at super-low rates of interest.

Being kleptocrats, they sniffed out the basics of the bezzle right away, and have been playing it ever since: we're not paying any of these loans back, so go get the money from the European Central Bank (ECB) and the German taxpayers, or declare bankruptcy. Your choice.

The Greek kleptocrats knew all along that the German, Dutch, French and Finnish taxpayers were easy marks, just as they knew the European Union Power Elites would fall all over themselves to "save the euro" which was the centerpiece of their "one Europe" strategy of domination.

Americans who take the trouble to look across the Atlantic gloat. They knew the euro would never work out. And now, even Europeans themselves are saying so.

Our old friend John Mauldin, for example, recorded French economist Charles Gave as follows:

Now, for those who have never had the extreme pleasure of time with Charles, he is a powerful, white-haired French patrician, and one of the better economists I know. Quite a brilliant thinker and not afraid to express his mind forcefully with a voice that sounds like God talking, with about the same assurance (note to self: never again follow Charles on a speaking stage).

“The question is entirely irrelevant” – punctuating the air for added emphasis. “The euro will not exist in a year. The whole thing was dysfunctional from the beginning.”

Now - this to me is the $64,000 question... who dreamt up this bullshit scheme in the first place and how have they been doing as of late financially speaking that is... If some dumb ass from Mississippi who liked doing air guitar as a 14 year old douche bag with his red headed pal who was also a 14 year old douche bag can figure out that this experiment had zero chance of making it long term, something tells me that the capuchin monkeys who dreamed up this farce knew it would not work out either. Tin Foil Hat out!

Germans have a long history of coming out of their shells, fraternizing with their neighbors, biting off more than they can chew and then getting pissed off when things don't work out. Echoes of the march to Moscow in spite of change in the weather. Plan your flight, fly your plan but when the environment changes, change your plan. *munching those crab chips but at a faster pace now*

Frontline Russians noticed the change. A Soviet commander in the 19th Rifle Brigade recalled: "I remember very well the Germans in July 1941. They were confident, strong tall guys. They marched ahead with their sleeves rolled up and carrying their machine-guns. But later on they became miserable, crooked, snotty guys wrapped in woolen kerchiefs stolen from old women in villages...Of course, they were still firing and defending themselves, but they weren't the Germans we knew earlier in 1941."

They seemed invincible at one time - but they turned out to be flesh and blood. Shocking, huh? And what did 'em in? A little rain, a little mud, a little snow, a little cold (sort of a Wisconsin fall and winter, huh?)...

"But for the populations of Eastern Europe and occupied Russia, there was much suffering yet to be endured. In cities and villages behind the front lines, Hitler's war of annihilation was fully underway, comprising the most savage episode in human history."

Like I said, when things don't go their way, they have a history of throwing a complete hissy fit.